Matt wrote:marianne wrote:silica id EASY to find.
That's not true. Many people have trouble finding it.
marianne wrote:or just use play its fine
That's not entirely true either. If the play sand is silica sand, then it's OK to use but not all play sand is silica sand. If you don't know what type of rock the sand is composed of, you could be sentencing your plant to death by using bad sand.
Matt is correct. Some places, silica sand is extremely difficult to find.
I live in the New Jersey / New York area.
I've searched pool stores, pet stores, hardware stores, construction stores,
landscaping companies, nurseries, etc.
Some places have pool filter sand or play sand, but the particle/grain size is too
small (.50mm range and smaller).
Finally found a place in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ called AGSCO Corp.
(selling larger particle/grain sizes), but they're only willing to sell me
some silica sand with a $100 mininum purchase.
I've been searching for months to get silica sand with a large grain/particle size.
All the time and money (gas, etc.) wasted searching for silica sand.
I could've just saved my time and money just purchasing FTS Growing Medium.
The rest of the money saved could've just went purchasing more VFTs from FTS.
Quikrete has the Commercial Grade Sand - Coarse but it's not available in the NJ/NY area.
And the largest grain/particle sand size for it is only (.70mm).
Quikrete also has Pool Filter Sand, the largest size is (.85mm).
A customer rep told me that's not available in the NJ/NY area either.
I finally had to settle for some Mystic White II pool filter sand with a
particle/grain size of (.80mm).
http://www.u-s-silica.com/mystic.htm
To get that, I had to contact the U.S. Silica Company. Mr. Sinkowski (friendly, helpful, & knowledgeable)
told me not one pool store in New Jersey had the (.80mm) size. The closest to my area that has that in stock are
2 pool stores in the Bronx, NY and Long Island, NY. The Bronx is the closest to
me, I had to make the 1 hour drive to go there (2 hours round trip).
marianne, if you know of a place in the NJ/NY area selling silica sand with a particle/grain size
of (.80mm and larger) & US Mesh/Grit size of 25 and lower, please let me know. I'd greatly appreciate it.
I'm interested in testing that for new VFTs and repotting for next year.